2 Thessalonians 2:3

της ανομιας, in אB with ten minn., cop sah arm, Tert Amb Ambrst: της αμαρτιας, ADGLP &c. latt vg syrr. The consistency of the former reading with της ανομιας and ο ανομος in 2 Thessalonians 2:7 f., which are not very likely to have influenced the copyist at this earlier point (as these expressions might have done if preceding our text), lends intrinsic probability to the well-attested reading of אB and the Egyptian versions. If ανομιας be rightly preferred, αμαρτιας must be set down as a Western paraphrase; it is curious that the three Latin Fathers above-named here oppose themselves to the reading of the Latin versions. Ανομια is a comparatively rare word in the N.T.

3 b. ὅτι ἐὰν μὴ ἔλθῃ ἡ�—, because (it will not be) unless there come the apostasy first: “first,” i.e. before the Lord comes. Πρῶτον, for πρότερον, of two events, in 1 Thessalonians 4:16; Luke 6:42, &c. The ellipsis is natural, the matter of deception, stated in 2 Thessalonians 2:2 b, being in every one’s mind; after 2 Thessalonians 2:3 a a formal contradiction of the announcement ἐνέστηκεν ἡ ἡμέρα is needless. Probably the writer meant to insert the contradiction after the ἐάν clause; but this sentence so runs on that its intended apodosis drops out of mind. We shall find a similar lapse in 2 Thessalonians 2:7. St Paul is liable to grammatical anacolutha (incoherences) in passages of excited feeling: cf. Galatians 2:4; Galatians 2:6; Galatians 5:13; Romans 4:16; Romans 5:12 ff.; see Winer-Moulton, p. 749. His style is that of a speaker, not of a studied writer; such broken sentences are inevitable, and explain themselves, in animated conversation.

Judging from the difference of contents in the two members of the ἐὰν μή clause, it seems likely that the Apostles conceived of two distinct and closely connected historical conditions precedent to the Lord’s παρουσία, both of which St Paul had set forth in his original teaching at Thessalonica (2 Thessalonians 2:5). First, the “coming” of “the apostasy”: the definite article marks this out as a known futurity, defined by evidence either from the O.T. or from current Christian prophecy,—the latter, if we must be guided by analogy (cf. 2 Thessalonians 1:8-12), being grounded upon the former. Ἀποστασία in classical Greek denotes a military or political revolt, defection; in the O.T., specifically, a revolt from the theocracy (from “the Lord”): see e.g. Joshua 22:22 (ἐν� … ἔναντι τοῦ κυρίου, בְּמֶרֶד … ביהיה); also 1Ma 2:15 (οἱ καταναγκάζοντες τὴν� … ἵνα θυσιάσωσιν); so in Acts 21:21, “thou teachest apostasy from Moses”; and the verb ἀφίσταμαι in 1 Timothy 4:1; Hebrews 3:12 (τὸ�). Correspondingly, in the Christian Church the term (here first appearing) signifies revolt from Christ, the defection of men “denying the Lord that bought them” (2 Peter 2:1). “The apostasy” is surely no other than that foretold by Jesus in His great prophetic discourse (so much in St Paul’s mind when he wrote these Letters): see Matthew 24:10-13; Matthew 24:24 : “Then shall many stumble … Many false prophets shall arise (cf. διὰ πνεύματος above), and shall mislead many … Because iniquity (ἡ�) shall abound, the love of the many shall wax cold … There shall arise false Christs and false prophets … so as to lead astray, if possible; even the elect”; cf. Matthew 13:24-30, the parable of the Wheat and Tares. This sad forecast of their Lord weighed on the hearts of the early Christians; the presentiments arising from it grew in distinctness in St Paul’s mind as time went on, and were expressed with increasing emphasis: see Romans 16:17-20; Acts 20:29 f.; Ephesians 4:14. In his last Letters (1 Timothy 4:1-3; 2 Timothy 3:1-9; 2 Timothy 4:3 f.) he defines “the apostasy” as it took shape toward the close of his own career, in language portending a full development, which he seems to have thought might not be far distant. The false teachers portrayed in the Pastoral Epistles as belonging to “the last times,” supply a link between St Paul’s ἡ� and the ἀντίχριστοι πολλοί of St John (see Appendix, pp. 223 f.). Such words as those of 1 Corinthians 12:3; 1 Corinthians 16:22; Colossians 2:19, show that, in the Apostle’s view, personal loyalty to Christ was the safeguard of Christianity. “Apostasy” leads the way in the supreme manifestation of evil here predicted, as though the infidelity of Christians supplied the occasion for the final eruption of wickedness; see, by contrast, Matthew 5:13-16. Ἠ� gave the Latin translators much trouble: abscessio (Tertullian); discessio (Vulg.); defectio (Ambrosiaster, Beza, Estius); refuga (Augustine), as if for ἀποστάτης.

3 c, 4. καὶ�, ὁ υἱὸς τῆς�, ὁ�: and there be revealed the man of lawlessness, the son of perdition, the adversary and exalter of himself against every one called god or (that is) an object of worship (aut numen, Beza). The emphatically prefixed ἀποκαλυφθῇ (substituted for ἔλθῃ of the parallel clause), which is repeated in 2 Thessalonians 2:6; 2 Thessalonians 2:8 (see notes; and cf. note on ἀποκάλυψις in 2 Thessalonians 1:7), gives to the coming of ὁ ἄνθρωπος τῆς� a superhuman stamp (cf. 2 Thessalonians 2:9). He is identified in 2 Thessalonians 2:7 (see note) with τὸ μυστήριον τῆς�; he comes κατʼ ἐνέργειαν τοῦ Σατανᾶ—ἄνθρωπος τὴν φύσιν, πᾶσαν ἐν ἑαυτῷ τοῦ διαβόλου δεχόμενος τὴν ἐνέργειαν (Theodore)—and attended with manifold miracles (2 Thessalonians 2:9). The terms describing his appearance and action are borrowed throughout from those belonging to the Parousia of the Lord Jesus, whose ἀντικείμενος he is to be,—a Satanic parody of Christ, His counterpart in the realm of evil.

This fearful personality is described by three epithets, the last of the three consisting of a double participle, and all three Hebraistic in form: (a) ὁ ἄνθρωπος τῆς� (see Textual Note)—“the man” in whom “lawlessness” is embodied, “in quem recapitulatur sex millium annorum omnis apostasia et injustitia et dolus” (Irenæus), who takes this for his rôle (cf. “man of God,” “man of Belial [worthlessness],” “man of war,” &c., in O.T. idiom); more simply named ὁ ἄνομος in 2 Thessalonians 2:7. As “the man of lawlessness,” Antichrist concentrates into himself all that in human life and history is most hostile to God and rebellious to His law; he is the ne plus ultra of τὸ φρόνημα τῆς σαρκός (Romans 8:7). (b) The first epithet refers to the nature, the second to the doom of Antichrist; he is ὁ υἱὸς τῆς�: cf. υἱὸς θανάτου, 1 Sam. (Kingd.: LXX) 1 Samuel 20:31; similarly in Deuteronomy 25:2 the man “worthy of stripes” is called, in Hebrew, “a son of smiting”; in Isaiah 57:4 the LXX reads τέκνα�, σπέρμα ἄνομον, for “children of transgression, a seed of falsehood” (in the Hebrew). To Judas Iscariot alone this name is elsewhere given in Scripture (John 17:12); but “whose end is perdition” (Philippians 3:19), and “he goeth to perdition” (εἰς�, Revelation 17:8; Revelation 17:11; said of the seven-headed Wild Beast), affirm virtually the same thing. (c) Of the two terms of the third title, ὁ� (cf. 1 Corinthians 16:9; 1 Timothy 5:14) is familiar, being equivalent to הַשָּׂטָן, ὁ Σατανᾶς, Satan, whom this “man of lawlessness” is to represent and whose power has its ἐνέργεια in him (2 Thessalonians 2:9 f.): see note on 1 Thessalonians 2:18; cf. also Zechariah 3:1 (LXX), ὁ διάβολος εἱστήκει … τοῦ�. This participle might be complemented, along with the following ὑπεραιρόμενος, by ἐπὶ πάντα κ.τ.λ.; but it is a quasi-substantive, with a recognized and complete sense of its own. It is Christ to whom “the adversary” ἀντίκειται.

In the second and extended participial clause of (c)—identified with ὁ� by the single article—ὑπεραιρόμενος has a parallel in 2 Corinthians 12:7 (“exalted above measure”: St Paul is fond of ὑπερ-compounds). Ἐπί as distinguished from ὑπέρ, and in this context, is against. Πάντα λεγόμενον θεόν (illustrated by 1 Corinthians 8:5 b) embraces the entire Pan-theon of mankind, deposed by this Great Usurper in favour of himself; while καὶ σέβασμα extends the previous term, already so wide, by way of including every conceivable object of religious reverence. So σεβάσματα in Acts 17:23 embraces the religious monuments and emblems of Athens generally—shrines, altars, images, and the like: the only other N.T. instance of the word, which occurs besides in Wis 15:17.